We've All Been There
by Dukes126plus
Summary: After they broke it to Cooter, how she wasn’t playing straight with him, he left Luke behind to pick up the pieces. From Trouble at Cooter's. /Warnings: Slash, incest/


From _Trouble At Cooter's_, this one was inspired by that moment when, having told Cooter that the girl was using him, Luke consoles him with, "We all been there." I fixed his grammar for the title.

* * *

"What did you tell him?" About the girl. After they broke it to Cooter, how she wasn't playing straight with him, he left Luke behind to pick up the pieces. Seemed like someone close to Cooter's own age ought to handle that part; Bo didn't reckon the man wanted someone he used to carry piggyback to school trying to cheer him up.

Luke shrugs. "Only that we all been there."

Oh yeah, there was that girl last year that pretended to want Luke, just so he'd help her and her secret husband find the money they'd stashed up in Bear Swamp. Broke his cousin's little Duke heart, and that didn't happen every day. In fact, until that point Bo wasn't sure Luke had a heart that could get broke.

"Well, you have. I ain't."

They've finally gotten that carburetor float valve working, so he has no idea why Luke's slowing down now. Shoot, all day long, all they've wanted is to be on the move, and the General hasn't been helpful. Now that they could just drive straight home without the car choking out, Luke's pulling them off the road alongside Willow Creek.

"You ain't?" Funny look on Luke's face, like either he ate something that doesn't agree with him, or maybe he thinks Bo is lying. Can't be the latter, they have rules about these things and Luke knows them, so it must be the former.

"You okay?" Bo asks instead of answering Luke's question.

"Bo." Well, there's no mistaking the tone, even if the face still looks like a man with a belly-ache. "You ain't? Are you serious?" Okay, incredulous, that's the look Luke's face is going for. Got it.

"Well, I ain't." And Luke's incredulousness is getting under Bo's skin.

"What about Diane?" His cousin has the gall to laugh in the middle of her name.

"Dang it Luke! That was different." And it was. He and Diane were serious. Cooter doesn't know the meaning of serious, and he only just met Bonnie this afternoon.

"Different how?" Luke demands. "She was just jerking you around same way as this girl was Cooter…"

There's probably more explanation to follow, but Bo doesn't hear it, what with the way he's pulling himself out of the car.

Damn it, he thought his cousin had _learned_ something from all of that. About how Bo wasn't a kid anymore, and could make his own decisions. About how Luke couldn't just take him for granted or assume that Bo was always wrong. This past year, maybe eighteen months, it really felt like Luke had mellowed and figured out how to respect him. But now he's throwing that Diane thing in Bo's face as a reminder that his kid cousin is just a fool—

"Bo." And then using that tone of voice with him, the one that reminds him that he's not the smart Duke cousin. Touching his shoulder, which means he's out of the car, too, probably getting ready to drag Bo back over to it and make him go home. No thanks. He turns on Luke and swings.

And Luke isn't expecting that, oh no. His head snaps around with the punch, and then he's turning back to Bo, dabbing at his lip.

"What was that for?" Luke demands, like he really has no inkling that he deserved to get hit.

"For," Bo swings again, and Luke blocks that one. Lands a punch of his own in Bo's solar plexus before he can get the rest of the sentence out. No fair, not giving him a chance to point out to Luke exactly how big of an ass he is. Now Bo's on all fours, coughing and gasping for air. Luke's hand comes down into his face: _let me help you up, little cousin_. Well, he's nobody's little anything anymore, so he ignores the gesture to stand up all on his own. Gathers just enough air to say, "For bringing up Diane." At all. Context doesn't matter; Luke should stop rubbing Bo's mistakes in his face.

"All right," Luke answers, perfectly reasonable. "I won't do it again." Makes Bo want to hit him some more, the way he doesn't fight back. Luke's owed a good, solid punch anyway. Bo cocks back a fist and swings one more time, just a graze off Luke's cheek, but it's enough. They're even now.

Too bad Luke doesn't understand that, advancing on him the way he is.

"What was that for? I said I was sorry." No he didn't, not technically, but Bo's not interested in arguing that. That last swing at Luke seems to have taken all the fight out of him.

"For hitting me, back at Cooter's." When they should have been beating the tar out of that Russ guy.

Luke's shaking his head and finding a tree to lean back on. Casual as a man whose lip is swollen and bleeding can be. "That wasn't on purpose, Bo."

Yeah, he kind of guessed that. Still, it was the kind of thing that a man just couldn't let slide.

"I hurt you?" Luke asks him, and he's a bit late with that question. This discussion should have taken place while they were tied up in the garage. "Come here," he adds, reaching out a hand.

Bo doesn't have to think twice, he takes a big enough step that Luke can grab his arm and pull him up close for inspection. Fingers on his cheek and a tsk when he flinches from the too-rough hand poking at a tender spot there.

"You're gonna live, Bo," Luke pronounces, letting go of his face and resting his straight arms on Bo's shoulders.

"I know," he answers, reaching up his right thumb to wipe the smear of blood away from the corner of Luke's lip. Red and swollen, and Bo has an impulse to kiss Luke where it obviously hurts. Gives in to it before he can rethink the idea, and suddenly finds he has Luke's hands in his hair, pulling him closer. Bo lets his one hand stay on Luke's face, stroking and catching in his cousin's afternoon stubble. His other hand reaches around Luke, pulls him away from the tree, feels the muscles in Luke's back grow taut as his cousin stands to his full height.

Mouths open and things get serious, right quick. This isn't exactly Bo kissing a boo-boo away anymore. This is him and his cousin, kissing like lovers, this is his arm around Luke's waist pulling their hips together. This here is nothing he's ever done before, and nothing he should be doing now. But unless Luke shoves him away, he's got no plans of stopping.

_We all been there_, his cousin told Cooter. Could be, he can't really say anymore. The only thing that's clear right now is that the thing with Diane, it wasn't different, it was exactly the same as everything else he's ever done. This, right here, _this _is no place he's ever been before.


End file.
